plan. he has a one-point plan. that plan is to make sure that folks at the top play by a different set of rules. >> the president's policies have been exercised over the last four years and they haven't put americans back to work. >> and this heated moment could change the momentum of both campaigns. listen. >> it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in benghazi an act of terror. >> get the transcript. >> he did, in fact, sir. so let me call it an act of terror. >> can you say that a little louder candy? >> we're fact checking the candidate's statements this morning. looki looking at former governor john sununu is back. ken rogoff, maryland governor martin o'malley will join us, robert gibbs, senior adviser to the obama campaign and candy crowley, who moderated that debate last night is going to sit down and talk to us about that, as well. wednesday, october 17th. and "starting point" begins right now.

morning, welcome everybody. our starting point this morning, president obama's round two rebound. last night's showdown on long island felt nothing like the first time around. this time the president stood toe-to-toe with mitt romney. the two candidates kind of slugging it out in what was sometimes a very tense town hall-style debate. very tense considering it was a town hall-style debate. here's how the nation scored it when it was over. a cnn/orc poll of registered voters who watched the debate gave the decision to the president, 46% to 39%. who said it was mitt romney who won. senior congressional correspondent dana bash is with us this morning. who's literally gotten no sleep. three out of four voters felt that the president exceeded their expectations way different from the last time around. >> way different. and you and i have witnessed it, watched it together, in the room. and there's no question that the president came to play. mitt romney came to play, also, and that resulted in a crackling clash.

you may think the debate in front of undeclared, persuadable voters, would produce polite performances. >> on government land -- >> no it isn't. >> reporter: think again. in at times this town hall looked like a schoolyard brawl. >> not true, governor romney. >> so how much did you cut? >> not true. >> i had a question and the question was how much did you cut them by. >> you want me to answer a question. >> reporter: if mem ran debates are about moments, one here was on libya. >> who was it that denied enhanced security and why? >> reporter: it was the question conservatives were waiting for. a chance to slam the president for lack security and changing stories on what prompted last month's deadly benghazi attack. >> there was no demonstration involved. it was a terrorist attack. but i think you have to ask yourself why didn't we know five days later, when the ambassador to the united nations went on tv to say that this was a demonstration. how could we have not known? >> reporter: the president threw down the commander in chief card. >> the suggestion that anybody in my team would play politics

or mislead, when we've lost four of our own, governor, is offensive. that's not what we do. that's not what i do as commander in chief. >> reporter: romney's offensive on national security did not go as planned. >> the day after the attack, governor, i stood in the rose garden, and i told the american people and the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened. that this was an act of terror. >> on the day after the attack he went in the rose garden and said that this was an act of terror? you said in the rose garden the day after the attack it was an act of terror? >> get the transcript. >> he did, in fact, sir. so let me -- let me call it an act of terror. >> could you say that a little louder, candy? >> reporter: throughout this debate the president tried to make up for the first one. this time he used that 47% attack line. >> when he said behind closed doors that 47% of the country

considered themselves victims, who refuse personal responsibility, think about who he was talking about. >> reporter: and romney, who dominated the stage in the first debate, was going for a repeat performance. >> you'll get your chance in a moment. i'm still speaking. and the answer is i don't believe people think that's the case -- that wasn't a question. that was a statement. >> reporter: an attempt to reach the critical female vote may have fallen flat. he answered a question about equal pay with a story about searching for women in his massachusetts cabinet. >> i went to a number of women's groups and said, can you help us find folks? and they brought us whole binders full of women. >> reporter: within moments, romney's binders had its own twitter handle. the president went after romney as a flip-flopper. >> when you were governor of massachusetts you stood in front of a coal plant and pointed at it and said, this plant kills. and took great pride in shutting it down. and now suddenly you're a big champion of coal. >> reporter: romney appeared determined to use his rehearsed lines, even when they were off topic.

the question was on immigration but romney launched into a defense of his offshore investments, with a practiced pivot against the president. >> any investments i have over the last eight years have been managed by a blind trust. and i understand they do include investments outside the united states, including in chinese companies. mr. president, have you looked at your pension? have you looked at your pension? >> i've got to say -- >> mr. president, have you looked at your pension? >> you know, i don't look at my pension. it's not as big as yours. >> let me -- >> now that -- that was clearly a moment that mitt romney thought he had the president, and the president came right back at him. and that was maybe indicative of so many moments, soledad, that we saw last night. very, very interesting that the whole format of the town hall, going into it you thought maybe that they were going to be a little bit more cautious because the whole idea is to play to the undecided voters. they want to be careful not to come across as too aggressive. obnoxious, frankly. they didn't care. >> you knew it was going to be a

very different kind of town hall than the sort of sometimes a little bit sleepy town halls that we see. mrs. jones, what do you think? >> there was nothing sleepy about it. >> very interesting to watch. dana, thank you very much. another man who has been up for a little bit as well, john sununu, the former governor of new hampshire, a senior adviser to the romney campaign, joining us this morning. good morning, sir. so nice to see you. thank you for talking with us. >> good morning. how are you? >> i'm really well, thank you. >> pretty one-sided package you put forth. you left out the fact that candy crowley admitted later on that mitt romney was right on the libya terrorism issue. so it would be nice to include that the next time -- >> well let's include it right now. you love to jump right into it. let's go for that. talking about benghazi, let's play a chunk first of the original exchange. i know dana just had that a moment ago in her piece but we'll play it again and and and where candy jumps in and talks about act of terror and then we'll play what she said after that. go ahead. >> well you played it already. >> no, no, no, let's do it

again. >> the day after the attack, governor, i stood in the rose garden. and i tolded american people and the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened. that this was an act of terror. and i also said that we're going to hunt down those who committed this crime. >> i want to make sure we get that for the record. because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in benghazi an act of terror. >> get the transcript. >> he did, in fact, sir. so let me -- let me call it an act of terror. >> could you say that a little louder, candy? >> he did call it an act of terror. >> and there were cheers. and then candy went on to say that, in fact, there was -- it took about two weeks for the whole idea to come -- to come out where there was a lot of back and forth on exactly what happened, was it a tape, was it not. let's play that. >> he did call it an act of terror. it did, as well, take -- it did, as well, take two weeks or so

for the whole idea of there being a riot out there about this tape to come out. you're right about that. >> the administration -- the administration indicated that this was a reaction to a video and was a spontaneous reaction. >> they did. >> so that's really how it went. there were two sets of applause. >> no it isn't. you left out -- you left out candy going on television later on, and admitting that mitt romney was right. and the fact is -- >> sir -- >> is that in that rose garden speech the president first suggested it was -- not suggested, said it was the video, and then two weeks later, at the u.n., the president goes out and tells the world six times it's the video. the president got caught lying last night. and i think the world should know that. >> so then let's walk through that. because in fact if you guys would do me a favor in the back, send out all the source material so anybody who follows us on twitter can look up what the president said at the u.n.

they can also see what the president said the day after the attack on september 12th. let's play the rose garden statement first. please. >> last night we learned the news of this attack in benghazi. as americans, let us never, ever forget that our freedom is only sustained because there are people who are willing to fight for it. to stand up for it. and in some cases, lay down their lives for it. >> so if you look at that entire transcript from -- >> but you left out the first part. and it's the first part where he's trying to tell the american public that it's because somebody in the u.s. used their freedom of first amendment right and made a video that was negative that caused the problem. >> are you -- >> this is ridiculous that you're trying -- that you're trying to defend the president, who two weeks later, five days later he sends out his ambassador to the u.n. to five talk shows to say it's the

video. >> governor -- >> two weeks later the president goes to the international stage, and says video six times. that's ridiculous. >> governor -- >> it's ridiculous you're trying to defend him on this. >> i'm trying to get a question to you. if i may, if you look at the rose garden statement, you say earlier. it is not there. there is no videotape that he's talking about. he's talking about people have argued that maybe he's talking about 9/11, it was the day after the anniversary of 9/11, certainly. but if you look at the actual statement from the rose garden, in this particular one, he does say act of terror. what candy corrected him, the governor, on last night was that issue. now my question for you is, wasn't that a lost opportunity? by picking on that particular thing, act of terror, which he did say, he ended up losing, i thought, the bigger point, which was there's been a lot of back and forth, a lot of contradiction, you heard from secretary rice -- ambassador rice, rather one thing. you heard from jay carney something else. they took a couple weeks before they were able to get their

story to the. but in that moment you see governor romney looking very confu confused about this act of terror line. wasn't that a big loss? that's my question. >> no. no. because what he did is put this into the conversation again. and now people understand that the president had -- and his ambassador to the u.n., and jay carney, and all the apologists for this white house, and all the groupies on television that are trying to cover his butt have been lying about the president trying to deceive america that that tragedy was the result of a video, rather than acknowledging right from the beginning that this was a well-planned, well-executed, terrorist attack -- >> but i thought the president -- >> -- which undermines the president's claim that we no longer have terrorism rampant in that area. >> -- the president so you realize that what he said in the debate last night was the day after the attack, here was the statement from the rose garden. and said abiliability acts of

terror will ever shake -- >> he got caught lying. because he was referring, "a," to the original 9/11. and "b," to the previous paragraph in which he inferred that it was a video -- >> -- what you're saying. >> this is ridiculous. and if you're dwelling -- if you're going to dwell on this you're out of your mind. >> well, i guess i'm just asking the questions. you can call that dwelling on something. you're the one who wanted to jump in and start with benghazi. so i went with what you wanted to start with, sir. >> let's go with it. let's go with it. >> what i would say is people can go ahead and take a look at the first source material, we'll send that out. you can read the president's speech, and you can see if, in fact, what you believe he's referring to when he uses the phrase act of terror. so why don't we move on. >> and don't forget to send out the five shows that the ambassador to the u.n. went on, and don't forget to send out the clips of the president two weeks later saying it was the video six times and put out four days after that the candy crowley clip in which candy crowley

acknowledges that the president was lying. >> let's move on, shall we? you know, i'm curious to know if you believe that it is -- there was some weakness in governor romney when the president was able to use the governor's own words and own positions against him in that debate last night. i'm going to run two clips that i think are good examples of where the president was able to do that effectively. let's play those. >> romney say he's a big coal guy. and keep in mind governor when you were governor of massachusetts, you stood in front of a coal plant, and pointed at it and said, this plant kills. and took great pride in shutting it down. and now suddenly you're a big champion of coal. so, what i've tried to do is be consistent. first of all, i think governor romney was for an assault weapons ban before he was against it. and he said that the reason he

changed his mind was, in part, because he was seeking the endorsement of the national rifle association. so, that's on the record. >> is that a problem with your candidate? the shifting using his own -- >> no. >> why not? >> look, that plant that the governor was referring to was violating standards. but what we have is an obama administration that has passed standards that is closing hundreds, hundreds of coal plants in the united states. that's why the coal miners in ohio rallied against obama. that's why obama is not getting what is traditionally an automatic endorsement from the coal union, because the coal union is livid. >> we're talking specifically -- >> -- turning his back on coal. and secondly let me go -- >> okay. >> you put two points out. let me deal with them. >> carry on. >> and governor romney did sign legislation that included in there the ban on those kinds of

weapons in the state of massachusetts. it is a different thing to have a position within a state, especially if you believe in the tenth amendment, that the states are the places where you can have differences in policies like that, and as a governor he exercised it. but we are now talking about a national policy. and on a national policy the governor has made it clear that he is firm on the second amendment. >> so when you're talking about the first part, that was salem harbor and that was back in 2006, and that is what he said. i will not create jobs or hold jobs that kill people, and that plant, that plant kills people, you're saying that that was accurate. >> i'm saying that what he did as a governor in massachusetts was appropriate, and what the president has done to the country in this drawing the national coal industry -- >> but that wasn't my question. my question was, is that -- >> i answered your question. >> no, sir, you did not or i missed it. so try again. did he -- >> you miss a lot of things,

soledad. what he said about the salem plant was that the salem plant had a violation problem and he was talking about the specific violations. what we're talking about is the destruction of a coal industry in fulfillment of an obama commitment in 2008 that if anybody wanted to build a coal plant, he would make sure they went bankrupt. >> let's talk about taxes, shall we? because that's always a good topic. >> sure. >> here is what governor romney said last night talking about dividends. let's play that. >> every middle income taxpayer no longer will pay any tax on interest, dividends, or capital gains. no tax on your savings. that makes life a lot easier. if you're getting interest from a bank, if you're getting a statement from a mutual fund, or any kind of investments you have, you don't have to worry about filing taxes on that, because there will be no taxes for anybody making $200,000 a year and less on your interest, dividends and capital gains.

>> again, there was not a lot of specifics last night about exact deductions that could potentially be compromised. but in the particular thing that he said, you no longer have to pay any tax on interest, dividends or capital gains, no tax on your savings, do you think that that really helps the middle class? do you think middle class people are raking in a lot of money and paying a lot of money in tax on capital gains and tax on their savings? >> a lot of elderly who are retired fall in that middle class, and that helps them tremendously. they are part of the middle class. yes, it does help the middle class, particularly those that are putting money away in savings accounts for kids going to college. they don't have to pay taxes on the savings interest that they get there. look, mitt romney's plan is a -- a huge benefit to the middle class, and as he said last night, the top 5% will continue to pay 60% of the total income taxes in america. that's his commitment, that's

the plan, and frankly, i think president obama is running around just explaining to the public that he can't do the arithmetic to understand that package. there are six major studies that confirm exactly what mitt romney has put forward. >> as you know, i believe it was chris wallace who said those six major studies, they're certainly not bipartisan. they don't necessarily don't have a stake in it, and some of them are blog posts. so i think that's unfair to say. but we are actually out of time, governor. we're always happy to have you. thank you for joining us this morning. >> it's always good to come on the groupie channel. thank you. >> nice to have you, sir. i hope you have a good day. i always need a cocktail after i speak to him. i really need like a vodka and tonic after i talking to him. >> wonder why he was one of our hosts for that program cross fire. you really wonder? >> he takes such exception when you like read quotes and comments, and we sort of have a similar issue i thought mayor giuliani when you try to get to let's look at what specifically

was said. let's give everybody the opportunity to read through what was said and they can also obviously just search for themselves online and you get attacked for it. >> candy did not say that romney was right, that the president didn't say it was an act of terror. what candy said, she can speak for herself, romney was right overall -- >> you are correct about that. the whole idea about it taking two weeks for this to come out. yes. you are correct about that. >> and after later in the analysis, did not go back -- >> well you know. he has a point of view, i think it's fair to say, and he loves to shout about it on tv often. >> exactly. and there is a reason why the romney campaign loves to have him out on tv as their spokesman or surrogate. we all speak to other people who are very much aligned with the romney campaign. who might be a little bit more candid and have been more candid certainly with me i'm sure with you guys as well about the way things went the specific issues. >> anyway we put all that -- >> certainly charming when he says you're out of your mind. >> i got to the point where i no longer take offense at all. at anything he says.

clearly. obviously -- we're going to get reaction from democratic maryland governor martin o'malley. he'll be talking with us. coming up next more debate analysis when president obama suggested mitt romney's tax plan would cost $8 trillion. kind of added another trillion in there last night. was he accurate? we're going to break down the economic claims from last night. harvard professor ken rogoff is going to join us. and a football coach gets out of hand, decked -- really? we could do one of these stories every single day. it's getting out of hand. the fallout from that straight ahead. mike rowe here at a ford dealer with a little q&a for fiona. tell me fiona, who's having a big tire event? your ford dealer. who has 11 major brands to choose from? your ford dealer. who's offering a rebate? your ford dealer. who has the low price tire guarantee... affording peace of mind to anyone who might be in the market for a new set of res? your ford dealer.

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i'm in deep, babe. you certainly are. when we got married. i had three kids. and she became the full time mother of three. it was soccer, and ballet, and cheerleading, and baseball. those years were crazy. so, as we go into this next phase,

you know, a big part of it for us is that there isn't anything on the schedule. welcome back, everybody. at issue, critical to voters came up in last nights debate. i thought they actually spent a

lot of time talking about this issue, jobs and the economy. listen. >> governor romney was a very successful investor. if somebody came to you, governor, with a plan that said, here, i want to spend $7 trillion or $8 trillion and we're going to pay for it, but we can't tell you until maybe after the election how we're going to do it, you wouldn't have taken such a sketchy deal. and neither should you. >> the president's spending, the president's bar rowing, will cost this nation to have to raise taxes on the american people. not just at the high end. a recent study has shown the people in the middle class will see $4,000 a year higher taxes, as a result of the spending and borrowing of this administration. i will not let that happen. >> ken rogoff here to break down those economic claims. he's a professor of economics and policy at harvard university. who do you think last night was stronger and had more facts and details in their position on the economy?

>> well, i think we really saw a reprieve of highlights of the first debate, where president obama was very insistent that you aren't giving enough specifics, your plan isn't going to work, it's going to have a bigger deficit. and by the way, it favors the rich. and governor romney, i think, was very strong on, look, the economy hasn't grown well for four years. i think i can do better. and, you know, i think around the details, by the way i might mention there was all this discussion of the gasoline price, which was a bit of a non sequitur. >> why do you consider that to be a non sequitur? because a lot was made, they probably spent four minutes or something on where gas prices were. where gas prices are. and what would happen if the other guy got into office or stayed into office. what would happen with those gas prices. >> i think the world demanz depends a lot. we're not the only country in the world buying oil. and so when china grows really fast prices go up. when the world's in recession

prices go down. president obama made that point. governor romney rightly said there are all these new technologies. we should exploit them. that might help. this just isn't something that the president of the united states controls no more than the price of soup -- cans of soup or something. so i -- i can understand energy policy is really important for the price of gas. that's just not something where the buck stops at the president. >> christine here. i think it was interesting that both very wisely did not put some sort of promise on a here to-term price of gas. because that's a promise they would not be able to keep no question. >> not for a month. >> let us know a little bit about i guess the gop, the advisers to mitt romney and what -- what i guess -- what their assumptions are about the recovery that we have seen. you wrote the book about what recoveries look like after financial crises. they have been claiming over and over again that the president has made it worse.

give us -- have they made it worse or are the president or are are mitt romney's advisers wrong? >> there are two sides to this. going forward, mitt romney's advisers believe they can grow the economy a lot faster. and if you want to know the difference between president obama saying you're going to cost $7 trillion or $8 trillion, and governor romney saying, no, it's going to work, i think they have very different views on how much growth they're going to get. i think that's sort of the secret weapon that governor romney believes he has. he doesn't want to be real specific about it. because then the democrats might come back and say that's pie in the sky. but if we look backwards, romney's advisers have been wrong to say that this is all his fault, that it would have been much better if he'd done something else. when you have a deep financial crisis, you look at u.s. history, you look at other countries, it's very hard to come roaring back. we could ask, you know, could it have been better?

we could also ask could it have been worse? i think in looking at the history, particularly the older history of the u.s., what the other examples are, they've really been way overstating the case at how badly he's done. but they're very legitimate questions about what are we going to do going forward? do you have a plan for growth? >> ken rogoff joining us this morning. i'm sure you were fascinated by this debate. they spent a lot of time on the substance. great to have you sir. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> you bet. back in a moment. one.

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morning. welcome, everybody.

our team joining us this morning. roland martin is cnn political analyst. nice to have you with us. >> what's happening? >> well, nothing. what's happening. ron brownstein the editorial director of national journal. republican congressman jason chaffetz from the great state of utah is back with us this morning. nice to have everybody with us. john berman sticking around. don't want to miss you there. >> thank you. >> this morning we're talking a little bit about the write-ups on the debate. and, and kind of like sports stories. i thought it was a much more aggressive debate than i had predicted. considering it was the town hall format. it was a tense night as the president and mitt romney duked it out in front of those uncommitted voters from nassau county in new york. here's a little chunk of it. >> the president's policies have been exercised over the last four years and they haven't put americans back to work. >> governor romney says he's got a five-point plan. governor romney doesn't have a five-point plan. he has a one-point plan. and that plan is to make sure that folks at the top play by a different set of rules.

>> how much did you cut licenses and permits on federal land and federal waters? >> governor romney, here's what we can. there were a whole bunch of oil companies -- >> i had a question and the question was how much did you cut them by? how much did you cut them by? >> i'm happy to answer the question. >> all right. and it is. >> here's what happens. >> president obama's renewed energy led 46% of people to say that he won last night in our poll. martin o'malley is a democratic governor of the state of maryland, the chair of the democratic governor's association, supporter of the obama campaign. nice to you have, sir. thank you for being with us. polls show -- >> thank you, soledad. >> you're welcome. polls show the one i just showed there that president obama was sort of declared the winner. but when you actually drill down in some of these polls if you look specifically at who would better handle the economy, who would better handle health care, we can throw some of these polls up, offering clear plans for solving the country's problems, who would better handle taxes, all of those polls it was actually mitt romney who led in those. and i would have to imagine, if you're part of the obama

campaign, you're looking at those numbers and saying, this is problematic. winning overall, but losing on the drilldown cannot be a good thing. >> well there's other polls also that say that people overwhelmingly agree that the policies that drove our country into the job losses and recessions were the policies that governor romney wants to take us back to. so sometimes it's hard to recognize and to reconcile the logic and reasoning behind some of these polls. i think what's very clear is that president obama dominated the debate last night and you know that because both sides are talking about the president's performance. i thought he drew very sharp and clear contrasts between policies that are actually causing us to recover jobs, versus the policies of the past that governor romney wants to take us back to. because of the job losses in the first place. and the crystallizing moment, at least as i was watching it, soledad, came when president biden turned to governor romney and said to him, if a business person presented the sort of

sketchy plan that you've presented for our economic recovery, or these massive tax cuts for corporations, and the wealthy, you wouldn't invest in that because there aren't the details to back up the plan. and so i thought it was a very strong performance for the president last night. >> and i think you just promoted the vice president biden. you said president biden. but i think you mean president obama. >> did i say that? i meant president obama. >> that's okay. >> it must be -- >> there was an editorial in "the new york times" today which was o'biden, that said that said this, instead of letting mitt romney -- mr. romney get away with a parade of falsehoods and unworkable promises he regularly, and ease talking about president obama, regularly and forcefully called his opponent wrong. what he did not do was describe how a second term would be more successful than his first has been, and, in particular, how he would cut -- show how he would cut through the thicket of republican opposition if re-elected. that's been a consistent theme

that laying out the plan, i thought he was good on having governor romney on the defensive during the night. but in terms of here's the plan, here's why i deserve the next four years, "the new york times" says you know, he's weak. and others have said it too. >> i'm not exactly sure why they say that. because as i look at it, we've had 31 months in a row of positive private sector job growth. the plan for the future is to continue to grow jobs, and in fact even some of the forecasts say that there will be more jobs created in the next four years if we continue on this better path than if we go back to the failed policies of the past. you look at what the president's laid out in terms of manufacturing jobs. bringing those manufacturing jobs home. increasing by a million the number of manufacturing jobs out there. building on the success of restructuring the auto industry. doubling exports. developing more domestic clean and renewable energy. >> -- i hear you. >> these are all parts of moving forward. but they're not talking points they're the plan for the second

term. >> well ron brownstein is here and he has -- his column in national journal was very similar to what i think the assessment of "the new york times" is. >> i'm interested governor, your thought, other than continuing on the direction we're on, what did you hear last night with the clearest indication of what the president would do to cause job growth to be faster in a second term than it has been in a first term where almost everyone agrees that it is not fulfilled the expectations that they were hoping initially. what did you hear last night about what he would do in a second term to make that job growth accelerate? >> well, i think you heard the policies about moving forward with a balanced approach. so we have the dollars to invest in infrastructure. to invest in clean energy. the ability to actually increase the number of stem graduates in our economy. all of these things go to the. they're all connected with the comprehensive plan to move our country forward, and to create jobs. on the other hand, what we heard from governor romney last night was nothing new.

he doesn't have a five-point plan. he has a one-point plan. which is to hold hostage the other 98% of us in order to make sure the 2% of the top earners do better. so, the other way to look at what the president -- i mean if you look at all of the jobs bills the president introduced, that the republican congress, including the congressman with you on the panel today voted against, you will see that as a road map forward. and after this election, there will be a better consensus for forward, and not back. >> we have time to talk about libya. how much time do i have? okay we got a minute to talk about libya. let's run a chuk of the debate last night talking specifically about libya. let's play that. oh. looks like we don't have it. this is the moment in the debate where, where candy crowley essentially fact checks what and i think governor romney was surprised by the fact that that the fact president obama did use acts of terror in a phrase. this is now sort of i think is the big issue that is coming out

of the debate last night. and i think we can pull it up and we can play that chunk so everybody knows the specifics of what i'm talking about. >> the day after the attack, governor, i stood in the rose garden, and i told the american people and the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened. that this was an act of terror. and i also said that we're going to hunt down those who committed this crime. >> i want to make sure we get that for the record. because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in benghazi an act of terror. >> get the transcript. >> he did, in fact, sir. so let me -- let me call it an act of terror. >> can you say that a little louder, candy? >> he did call it an act of terror. >> so he did call it acts of terror. and the congressman sitting next to me who you just referenced a moment ago has said well, he believes that he wasn't referring specifically to benghazi, that he was referring to generally to 9/11, and generally to terror in general.

candy went on in the next moments to say that, in fact, the, the real issue, the correction was that governor romney sort of picked a quote that that that the president has said but, but on the main, ultimately the conversation about did they flip-flop and were there competing versions of what exactly happened was, was very true. is this going to be a problem for this campaign moving forward? >> that's a question for me? >> yes, it is, sir. >> soledad, i think the president last night stated very clearly that he said the day after the benghazi attacks it was acts of -- acts of terror. this is a developing situation. this was one that mitt romney pounced on right away as a political football and candy crowley was right to call the objective truth the objective truth. and that's what we need in the campaign. and i'm glad she stepped up and did call governor romney on that. the fact of the matter is the president, the very day after referred to this as acts of terror. and i don't know how it could be any clearer on that.

and there's not a doubt in my mind that there will be a full investigation of everything related to this. and there has been no criticism in the history of our country who is more ruthlessly and relentlessly pursued terror enemies of the united states than barack obama has. >> you know what we're going to do, we've put out on twitter the verbiage of the president's comments in the rose garden so everybody can look at them and there their interpretation of what he meant by the acts of terror line which was as candy pointed out accurately quoted. governor thank you for talking with us this morning governor martin o'malley, democrat from the state of maryland. ahead this morning on "starting point," a raised eyebrow, a smirk, a glance. despite what they say, it's the facial expressions during the debate that could reveal a lot more. sometimes even more than the words are saying. how about expert in facial coding who will join us to talk about that. also, did you see this picture? the youth football coach clocking the ref. oh. nice example for the kids.

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unlocking the world's potential. welcome back to "starting point" everyone. breaking news to tell you about. the u.s. embassy in stockholm evacuated this morning over a possible security scare. police say a suspicious envelope containing white powder sparked the scare. the envelope is being investigated now at a secure location. the massachusetts pharmaceutical company linked to a deadly outbreak of meningitis is now the target of a federal criminal investigation. a search warrant was executed yesterday, tuesday, at the new england compounding center. 50 people have died from a noncontagious form of meningitis associated with a contaminated steroid produced there. and federal officials say more issues have been reported with drugs produced by the company. a ukrainian man is facing federal charges for allegedly trying to open emergency exit door of a moving jet in salt lake city. that's a bad idea. he told federal agents he'd been drunk for 50 days running.

that's also a bad idea. and he thought the plane's wing was on fire. delta flight 1215 from boston to salt lake city had just touched down monday night when the man leaped from his seat and began trying to pry the exit door open. he was subdued by passengers. >> can you imagine being on that plane? you'd be like sit down. >> i can't imagine -- >> physically fighting. >> what you're looking at is the video we've been telling you about. the youth league football coach who was caught on camera punching a referee in the face. he is now facing battery charges in florida. west park saints assistant coach dion robinson was apparently upset about unsportsmanlike conduct, a call made against him during the game. and robinson's fellow coaches are actually standing by him. they say the ref here was in the wrong. not sure how that could be. the miami dade extreme youth football league, it is extreme, is how considering kicking their team out of the league. >> so the refs could be in the wrong. you still can't clock him in the

head. right? >> in the wrong, what? >> walking on the wrong sideline? how is he in the wrong? >> that has to be at least another 15 yards. >> at least. at least. still ahead this morning we're going to talk about sort of the facial expressions that we saw in the debate. raised eyebrows, smirks, glance, sometimes the candidates are saying one thing but their facial expressions are revealing something else. we'll talk about that straight ahead.

president obama, mitt romney brought their a games to last night's town hall debate with a decidedly strong performances from both men. like any heated exchange between

two presidential hopefuls, there was a much more subtle game being played, relying on facial expressions and body language, which in many cases can say a lot more than what the candidate is actually saying. to talk about those interactions, facial coding expert, dan hill. nice to have you with us. >> good morning. >> you're watching to see if what they're say something matching up with what their eyes are doing? >> absolutely. 25% of the brain is devoted to processing visuals. that's going on all the time. it's decisive because it feeds into your emotional response. george orwell said by the age of 50 a man has the face he deserves. in the first debate, we saw the face of president obama what the congress has given him. >> did you say congress? >> congress. this was like a man coming back from the dead. a lot of sadness and resignation, means i kind of

have resigned and given up. this time he was fighting for his issues, only time he showed sadness was when he got to the gun debate. >> side by side from the first debate and the dough bait from last night. and you were just talking about that, looking sad, which he only did really once. >> in the debate, yes. last time his eyes were down. he was looking at his notes, slumped in his demeanor. he looked small on the stage and he's supposed to be the president. this time he came on strong. >> we have been talking about arguing and parsing what people have said about benghazi. >> sure. >> you were looking at response to the question itself. let's play that. >> this question actually comes from a brain trust of my friends at global telecom supply. >> when do you see there? >> three things actually. it was not the best moment for obama. first when the mouth pulls wide, you have fear. you have anxiety. you kind of freeze for a moment. >> not a question you want. >> we do not want a president to

freeze. we want him moving forward. he showed fear. he gulped. inner eyebrows raised in another sign of fear. later on when he started saying how dare you challenge basically my patriotism and caring about what happened in benghazi, he came on really strong, almost as if he compensated for that initial fear but did have the fear. >> town halls an opportunity to demonstrate empathy. there was a lot of aggression, conflict, strength. were there moments or was either more effective at kind of projecting understanding, empathy, getting average people? >> one of the things that romney, i think, did well in this debate, he has shown me things he never showed me before. i actually trailed giet in iowa 2007. i was this close to him sometimes hours on end, watching expressions. i saw things last night have never seen before. >> what did you see? >> last night much more disgust than he normally shows. why is this important? whut when the upper lip curls and nose wrinkles. >> we have shots of that. >> that's basically rejection.

he is trying to get voters to reject the obama economic policies. >> he seems a little ticked. the president was getting under his skin. >> very much so. >> did romney also make a mistake? i thought several times he kept turning away from the audience, going at the president. >> into his personal space. we have a clip as well. let's play that. >> he would engage had him, brush him off and walk toward someone. >> that was brilliant. the back of the face -- we are a market research firm. if an actor in a tv spot shows the back of the face, you don't get nearly the same emotional connection and empathy opportunity as if you see the front of the face. there's part of the brain that reads people's faces that's eight times more sensitive than the part of the brain that reads objects. friend or foe. lbj sais said if you can't walk in the room and tell me if you're with me or against me -- >> it was about one of the candidate's wives, ann romney. >> absolutely. i knew right away who lost this debate before it got to the poll. ann romney right after the

debate showed embitterment. >> that's embitterment? >> the mouth is pulled tight, upward thrust from the jaw aarea. the mouth goes down a little bit. that is anger and disgust and it was in the eyes and in the mouth and it was in the lips. >> you saw it in the first with michelle obama. >> michelle obama first debate looked disillusion before the debate got under way. after the second debate you knew who lost the second debate. >> any word from the two of them when they walked off the stage? >> they were much happier with this one, to say the least. >> romney left earlier than the president. he didn't stick around as long as he did this time than he did the first time. >> he had a moment when he showed arm anger. obama really got under his skin when he started going after taxes and 1%, boom, boom, boom, lots of anger from romney and ann showed it on her face even more than mitt did. >> facial coding expert. nice to have you with us. that is so fascinating, isn't

it? i feel like i missed so much by not reading everybody's facial -- >> read the congressman right now. >> i'm just going to keep smiling. >> he's a fast learner. >> come back and do tape of us. >> oh, gosh. please don't. up your game. up the ante. and if you stumble, you get back up. up isn't easy, and we ought to know. we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again. anncr: every president inherits few have faced so many. four years later... our enemies have been brought to justice. our heroes are coming home. assembly lines are humming again. there are still challenges to meet. children to educate.

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morning. welcome, everybody. ahead on starting point this morning, president obama bouncing back in his debate rematch. we'll talk about his performance and the battle for the white house. we'll talk to the president a's senior adviser, robert gibbs. also ty pennington will join us. he told us about the project at the rnc, building half a house, dnc building hf a house. they put that house together. they've handed it off to a military family. we'll tell you who is the

recipient of that new and beautiful home. that's straight ahead. one.

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have you looked at your pension? >> no, i haven't. it's not as big as yours. >> it took him four days before he called it an act of terrorism. >> look at the transcript. >> he actually did so -- >> can you say it louder, candy? senior adviser to the obama campaign, robert gibbs, ron johnson, cnn's candy crowley, the debate moderator from last night's debate and ty pennington who created that house, half of it built from the dnc, half from the rnc. they finally put it together and handed it off to the military family. he'll talk about how that went and the family members, too. "starting point" begins right now.

morning. welcome, everybody. our starting point is the obama/romney rematch. last night's long island debate had everything the first encounter lacked. this time, the two candidates slugging it out in what was a very tense debate. registered voters who watched the showdown. the president came out on top. dana bash is with us. nearly three out of four voters said that the president exceeded their expectations. maybe that's not such a shocking poll, considering how badly he did the first time around. >> exactly. it's much easier when your expectations are low. there's no question that the president came to play. mitt romney did as well. there were times where they almost looked like they were physically stalking each other. they certainly talked over each other and tried to talk over candy crowley. it was an electric night for 90 minutes straight. >> you may think the debate in front of undeclared, persuadable voters would produce polite

performances. >> production is -- >> down. >> no, it isn't. >> think again. at times this town hall looked like a schoolyard brawl. >> not true governor romney. >> how much did you cut? >> not true. >> i had a question and the question was how much did you cut -- >> you want me to answer it? >> reporter: if memorable debates are about moments one here was on libya. >> who was it that denied enhanced security and why? >> it was the question conservatives were waiting for, a chance to slam the president for lax security and changing stories on what prompted last mon month's deadly benghazi attack. >> there was no demonstration involved. it was a terrorist attack. i think you have to ask yourself, why didn't we know five days later, when the ambassador to the united nations went on tv to say that this was a demonstration, how could we have not known? >> reporter: the president threw down the commander in chief card. >> and the suggestion that anybody in my team would play politics or mislead when we've lost four of our own, governor, is offensive.

that's not what we do. that's not what i do as commander in chief. >> reporter: romney's offensive on national security did not go as planned. >> the day after the attack, governor, i stood in the rose garden and i told the american people and the world that we were going to find out exactly what happened, that this was an act of terror. >> on the day after the attack, you went in the rose garden and said that this was an act of terror? >> that's what i said. >> you said in the rose garden the day after the attack it was an act of terror? >> get the transcript. >> he did, in fact, sir. so, let me call it an act of terror -- >> can you say that a little louder, candy? >> throughout this debate the president tried to make up for the first one. this time he used that 47% attack line. >> when he said behind closed doors that 47% of the country considered themselves victims who refuse personal responsibility, think about who he was talking about.

>> reporter: and romney, who dominated the stage in the first debate, was going for a repeat performance. >> you'll get your chance in a moment. i'm still speaking. and the answer is, i don't believe people think that's the case because -- it wasn't a question. that was a statement. >> reporter: in an attempt to reach the critical female vote may have fallen flat. he answered the question about equal pay for women about a story of finding women for his cabin cabinet. >> governor, when you were governor of massachusetts you stood in front of a coal plant and pointed at it and said this plant kills and took great pride in shutting it down. and now suddenly you're a big champion of coal. >> reporter: romney appeared determined to use his rehearsed lines even when they were off t topic. the question was on immigration. but romney launched into a defense of his offshore investments with a practice

pivot against the president. >> any investments i have over the last eight years have been managed by a blind trust. and i understand they do include investments outside the united states, including in chinese companies. mr. president, have you looked at your pension? have you looked at your pension? >> i've got to say -- >> mr. president, have you looked at your pension? >> i don't look at my pension. it's not as big as yours so it doesn't take as long. >> let me give you some advice. >> that was definitely a moment, there was no question about it. and it was also a reminder of how, again, physical it was, soledad. romney approaching the president and going, you know, towards him as he was talking to him, the koind of thing that talking to debate coaches who were inside the campaign and even outside said that they were cautioning against because it makes the viewer and more importantly voter feel really uncomfortable. >> we spoke about that last night, right? you have the audience, which is the town hall, which is in this little encircled area. then you have the people watching the town hall but in the room. then you have the people watching on television, watching the town hall on tv.

and those are very different audiences where sort of body positions, space and how you're acting to someone differently. >> if you look at both candidates, they both sort of did use the floor. neither was sitting on his stool for very long. they both really did approach each other. i think the governor went maybe this much closer in the personal space. >> looked like a gladiator ring. >> much more tough than i thought a town hall would be. town halls are uvly kind of -- i think very rarely are you yelling at people in town halls but not last night. robert gibbs, senior adviser to the obama campaign, former white house press secretary. good morning. nice to have you with us. >> good morning. how are you guys? >> well. thank you for asking. it looks like obama won the debate last night. when they dug deep into that, you actually su that mitt romney won in a lot of questions in the polls. here is a list of them.

who better handled the economy? health care, romney 49%, obama 46%. i think you have -- you cannot look at some of these breakdown polls and feel that last night was a huge victory in those particular areas. >> two points i would make. one wolf made last night, which is the poll was about an 8% to 10% more republican sample than the normal cnn polls. and if you look at that question, who do people in the poll think is better to handle the economy, mitt romney had even a larger lead. if you look at where mitt romney started that debate with the answer on who was going to be better on the economy and then after an hour and a half, that number decreased significantly. so i think -- look, i'm enormously pleased with the president's performance and i think undecided voters saw a

commanding, in-charge president that talked specifically about what he's done and what he wants to do to move this economy forward and continue to strengthen it. and i think, without a doubt, his strongest answer was on national security and libya. >> let's play some of that. of course, that created a big moment of the night last night. >> sure. >> and it's one that this morning we're seeing a lot of, certainly, spinning on the gop side, interpreting what candy said. let's play first what happened in the debate last night. >> the day after the attack, governor, i stood in the rose garden and i told the american people and the world that we were going to find out exactly what happened and that this was an act of terror. and i also said that we're going to hunt down those who committed this crime. >> i want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in benghazi an act of terror. >> get the transcript. >> did he, in fact, sir.

so let me call it an act of terror. >> can you say that a little louder, candy? >> he did call it an act of terror. >> so, candy went on, though, to say, it did take two weeks or so for the whole idea of there being a riot out there and this tape to come out, you are correct about that. she is speaking to governor mitt romney. on "good morning america," saying this, candy backtracked from that correction where she basically said, yes, he did call it an act of terror. are you concerned that this framing it as a backtrack is going to be problematic? she was saying the two-week thing is absolutely true. >> i think if you lock at what the president said in the rose garden on the 12g9, there are two incidents where he talks about acts of terror. it's clear he's talking about a whole host of things, including what happened in benghazi. look, i have watched them try

like olympic gymnasts to politicize this issue by doing whatever they have to do. he has handled this as poorly as any prospective commander in choef has ever handled a series of national security questions. and i think it demonstrated the real strength of the president last night in answering that question. and in watching, you know, 70 million people likely watching mitt romney's facts corrected on the air because he was nothing short of wrong. i think it was far and away the president's strongest answer. i think mitt romney looked very unbalanced. >> he did use the word acts of terror. as you know, going through the timeline. we should tweet this timeline or chunks of it that we have out to people. jay carney mentioned reaction to the movie, protests that we were seeing in the region. that was september 13th. we know where the movie was an issue. we do know that susan rice on

"meet the press" talked about spontaneous reaction to what traps piered hours before in cairo, copycat. >> the president in the rose garden says no acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation. the next day the president says i want people around the world to hear me. to all those that would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished. later that day on the the 13th, no act of terror will dim the light of our values. he goes on to talk about the fact that whoever did this, whoa will hunt them down, hold them responsible. the president was clear on this. watching republicans trying to politicize this issue, even as the ambassador's own father has said we ought to find out what happened but not make this a political football back and forth. i think mitt romney, again, has handled this thing enormously poorly from his very first response all the way through this debate. he doesn't look loik a strong commander in chief. every time he has wuked out on what is supposed to be the world's stage, whether it was

his foreign trip, whether it was reaction to this in libya, whether it was this question tonight. mitt romney has proved to the american people that he is not a strong commander in chief. he won't be a stronger commander in chief. he's not ready to be america's commander in chief. >> let's run a chunk about immigration. last night president obama talked about mitt romney calling the arizona law a model of immigration. i want to play that chunk before i clarify what specifically governor romney has said. >> he called the arizona law a model for the nation. part of the arizona law said that law enforcement officers could stop folks because they suspected maybe they looked like they might be undocumented workers. and check their papers. you know what? if my daughter or yours looks to somebody like they're not a citizen, i don't want -- i don't want to empower somebody like that. >> governor romney, when given

the opportunity said what i said was the e-verify portion. if you look back at his transcript, he very clearly called the e-verify portion of the arizona law, which would allow the employers to determine ifs somebody is in the country legally or not legally, that would be helpful. that's literally what he said. isn't the president very much mischaracterizing his position on the arizona law? >> no. look, again, as the president says in his answer, mitt romney's chief immigration adviser is the secretary of state of kansas, who wrote the arizona law. it's an arizona law that, again, mitt romney was enormously proud of during a primary in which he was trying to beat everybody as the strongest, most anti-immigrant candidate out there. you saw what he did to rick perry. you saw what he did to newt gingrich on this issue. >> he called it a model, he was talking about e-verify. >> i think he was actually talking about the law. he was very clear on that. and look, this is classic mitt romney. he is doing whatever in an election he needs to do, to say

what he needs to do to whatever aud audience is in front of him. he's a deal closer. >> he is talking about e-verify. it's clear. he was saying i think it's a model, e-verify. it was very clear. >> i know that's exactly what mitt romney has tried to say. >> now i'm a gop spokesperson. my god. >> i'm not john sununu. please don't confuse me with -- >> there is only one. >> he is one of a kind. they rightly and deservedly broke the mold soon after. i'm not john sununu. i want to be clear. mitt romney will tell whatever audience they want to hear on immigration reform. what you're seeing now and when you saw last night is a governor who won this nomination by being the single most anti-immigrant candidate out there and proud of it. now what he wants to do in front of 70 million in a deby the is say, no, no, no. i don't have any of these positions. i have these way different positions. >> my job is to read the verg

bchlt age of what he said and he said that the -- >> my job is to make sure that people see mitt romney when he was in the primary, when he was trying to win this nomination. and now he's trying to prend pre-tend he didn't take those positions. he is trying to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. he is trying desperately to change himself and change his appearance in these debates. he has become a political c chameleon. he has said he is a severe conservative in the primary, that he wants self deportation, has no desire to do comprehensive immigration reform. that's the candidate -- the true position of these candidates, true position of mitt romney, what he wants you to believe in these debates, i don't have a big tax cut. what are you talking about? i've got a comprehensive immigration reform. i'm all for t i've got a health care form that covers pre-existing conditions. i love teachers. last night saying i don't want companies to make decisions about contraception for women.

completely walking away from the position he had taken on that issue. he is a deal closer. he walked into those bain deals and would tell employees at those companies, don't worry. your job is going to be fine just like your had health care and pension. and he left those meetings and the deal got closed and those people lost their jobs, their health care and their position. >> bain wasn't brought up last night. if we're going to talk foreign policy in the third debate, that probably will not be something that's brought up in the next debate. robs robert gibbs, senior adviser for the obama campaign. thank you for being here. making the rounds, candidates are putting their spin on the debates. joe biden was -- paul ryan was talking to the "today" show. here is what he said. >> he didn't offer any new idea about how the next four years would be any different than the last four years. >> and the thing that amazed me the most was even after three

debates, his two and my won, there still is not a single specific in the romney $5 trillion tax plan. there is -- i mean, everything is -- everything is sketchy. >> that's interesting to use the word sketchy, which is a repeat of the word that the president used last night, sketchy. other stories making news, believe it or not, that don't involve last night's debate, john berman has a look at that. and also breaking news. >> we do. big news about lance armstrong. he is stepping down as chairman of his live strong charity. legendary cyclist, embroiled in a doping scandal. and last week a scathing report was row lease d, accusing him o cheating when he won his seven tour de france titles. he has denied the allegations, thousands of pages of allegations, including witness testimony. we'll keep you updated on this story as it develops. another developing story we're watching, u.s. embassy in stockholm has been evacuated

over a security scare. all authorities are accounted for. the envelope with the white powder is being investigated at a secure location right now. george zimmerman, the man accused of killing trayvon martin, will be back in a florida courtroom in front of a new judge, judge deborah s. nelson replaces judge kenneth lester after an appeals court granted the defense's request that he be replaced, accused of making disparaging remarks about his character. on the verge of a sweep in the american league championship series, tigers are now up 3-0rks in as in not any wins for the yankees. >> s they unnecessary. >> justin verlander spun a gem yesterday. tigers wrap up the series with the win, if they win game four, that will earn them a birth to the world series. >> i've never disliked anybody as much as i have disliked justin verlander.

>> he's really good. >> i know and it's killing me. in the middle of the debate, of course, people were tweeting what was happening. >> soledad was doing play by play. >> raul ibanez, hero of the last playoff series for the yankees struck out, two strikes in the bottom of the ninth. >> my sons are dying. come on, raul. help us out here! one more game. when is that? >> maybe just one more game. >> when is it? >> game four tonight. >> tonight, okay. we'll see. we'll pray. ahead on "starting point" we continue our post debate coverage. you just heard from the president's senior adviser, robert gibbs. up next we'll talk to the other side. senator ron johnson will be joining us. [ woman ] it's 32 minutes to go time,

and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center... working together has never worked so well. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center... one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now.

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morning. welcome back, everybody. roland martin is a cnn political analyst. got little sleep last night. ron brown strien, he got virtually no sleep last night. congressman jason chaffetz was there in long island. >> he went to bed early. >> he got no sleep tonight and senator ron on, romney surrogate, nice to have you with us. >> good morning. >> he probably got less sleep than all of us this morning. ahead we're going to be chatting a little bit about the debate last night, obviously. and also we'll talk to cnn's candy crowley. now her role in the dough bait is what's coming under fire from republicans. let's begin with who won. would you say it was a definitive victory from mitt romney? it doesn't match what the polls are saying. >> we take both debates in

total. to me, one s aalient fact is that in order to pass any proposals -- forget all the details. you'll have to get them through congre congress. what mitt romney has demonstrated in showing the american people, he is a man that actually has been able to work with the other side. in massachusetts, he had had allegedly 87% democrat, taken $3 billion deficit and turned that into $2 billion rainy day funds. he is able to work the other side. this president, his record is that he is not able to do that. first two years when he had total control, he didn't pass immigration reform and jammed through stimulus, dodd-frank. when facing the divided government he has been awol, not able to work with anybody in congress, republican or democrat. he does not have working relationships with anybody. last two budgets have been voted on three times in congress. final vote tally -- >> that makes you an excellent romney campaign surrogate.

the question was, who won? >> again, i think governor romney won because -- >> the polls would say no. >> he continued that momentum. when you take a look at your cnn poll and said romney bested obama 58-40 on the economy, that is the issue of the day. that's pretty clear. >> in that same poll, though, they said who would better handle the middle class and president obama beats mitt romney. both of them focused on the middle class this entire debate. that's also when that exact same poll says. >> when you grow the economy and you're better at growing the economy, that's what's actually going to help the middle class. >> it also goes to health care, education, other issues as well. i'm simply stating exactly what the poll said. it was very clear that the president beats romney on helping the middle class. >> what were the most important ways, if any, this set up the final three weeks of the campaign? >> again, it's so incredibly important. trust me, jason and i hear this all the time. you guys have got to get together. you have to work together.

that is what mitt romney has demonstrated. plus he actuallies had a plan. i talked about president obama has a plan. it's those two budgets. 0-610. we are facing the most predictsable financial crisis in our history, and the president of the united states is spending millions of dollars, thousands of man hours producing these budget that is not a member of his party are willing to give it a vote. when you're looking forward -- president obama won ought slogan hope and change. his new slowingsen forward. he a's got nothing to offer in terms of forward where mitt romney does. because mitt romney understands how to grow the private sector. that's incredible important. >> last night mitt romney said at the tail end government cannot produce jobs. how can a person stand there and say i'm going to create 12 million jobs but then say government can't create jobs. >> in a normal recovery, you would be crow ated 250,000 jobs a month, which translates to 12 million jobs. the reason we're not creating those jobs is because of the

choices, the policies that president obama took -- here is the fact. he did not come into office with the economy in a freefall. we were losing jobs, but the fact is that within two months we entered the second quarter and lost .7% gdp. the economy bottomed out and then we started recovery the third quarter. >> in the last six months of 2008 and we kept losing jobs in the first months of 2009. >> you don't think the economy was in freefall then? >> no. basically flattened out by the second quarter and grew close to 4% the next three quarters. then president obama's policies took effect and started scaring consumers and business owners and as a result the economy totally stalled. >> senator, where is the evidence? if you look at the entire decade since 2000, tax cuts are going to do any better? when president bush left, ten years to the day after he passed his tax cuts, fewer people were working than on the day they were passing. what was the evidence in that

experience that would say this would do better? >> when the tax cuts were enacted, before the howing bubble burst, which was caused by democratic policies, revenue -- >> that was kind of multifactoral. >> no, no, 1.8 to $2.5 trillion, 42% increase. same thing happened under ronald reagan when he cut taxes, revenue grew. tax cuts were -- >> median income was lower when he took office, number of people in poverty with his higher and basically there were fewer -- 1 million more people working than the day he took office, fewer ten years to the day -- so when you look at that, why can you say with great optimism that the results would be better than we've seen either in the bush years or under the obama years? perhaps we're dialing with structural problems that are larger than the issue of what the tax issues are. >> the factor that is most troubling to president obama's median household income has

declined 1.8%, double what's happened in the past under recessions. that has occurred during obama's recovery. that is an incredible failure. >> it also declined during president bush's recovery. >> not to this extent. >> but it did decline. >> perhaps there is a structural problem larger than -- >> one at a time. let the senator -- >> yes. >> budget office has been very clear, bush tax cuts contributed to the deficit. so please explain. >> $600 billion during this administration. >> right but again, president bush had a is yourplus but left office with a significant deficit. i'm simply asking, how can you make the aargument, cut the deficit but keep going with the tax cuts when it's not going to -- cbo was real clear. increase the deficit. >> the deficit is always blamed on the bush tax cuts. >> a portion of it. >> a small portion of t-600

billion out of -- >> 5 trillion -- >> no, no, just this administration. $5.3 trillion worth of deficit, $600 billion is the total tax cuts. here is the problem. president obama's solution, the buffett rule would raise $5 billion, 11 hours worth of spending or full blown tax the rich, raise $67 billion a year to try and solve a $1,100 billion deficit? >> you get four questions. i get at least one here. the senator is absolutely right. i thought one of the best, most eloquent answer that is governor romney gave is what is the difference between him and president bush? i thought there was a legitimate question asked sincerely and i thought governor romney hit that out of the park. the second part, though, was the other gentleman who stood up and said what have you actually done for me? look at the price of gasoline. mitt romney, i think, eloquently went through the list and said with all due respect, mr. president -- these are my words, not governor mitt romney's

words, candidate obama promised rootbeer in every drinking fountain and did not -- >> we could sit down for 25 minutes on this debate. >> we should do that. >> unfortunately we have to stop it. ken rogoeff was saying it's -- to attack gas prices. >> exactly. >> he has said that. we turn to john berman with a look at the other stories and breaking news as well. more breaking news about lance armstrong. nike has canceled its contract with lance armstrong. this, as the cyclist has just stepped down as the chairman of his very own live strong foundation, which help cancer survivors and their families. it comes a week after armstrong was implicated as a key figure in an elaborate doping ring with the u.s. postal service team. that report came from the u.s.

anti-doping agency. live strong foundation was created after he battled testicular cancer. now the target of a criminal federal investigation, new england compounding center. 15 people have died from a noncontagious form of meningitis associated with a contaminated steroid produce there had. federal officials more issues have been reported with drugs produced by that company. more news now. >> major setback for the defending cup champions. the catamaran flipped in san francisco bay. no crow members were hurt but the vessel was extremely damaged. the new catamaran cost the team $8 million. we've been look iing at this video, youth league football coach caught on camera punching a referee, now facing battery charges in florida. don robinson apparently was upset about an unsportsman like

conduct call made against him during the game. robinson says his fellow coaches are standing by him. they say the referee was in the wrong, that miami dade extreme youth football league, appropriately named, is now considering kicking their team out of the league. soledad? >> thank you very much, john. analysis continues about the debate. candy crowley moderated the tense evening, host of state of the union, chief correspondent. howie kurtz is joining us, daily beast. lauren as had hburn, editor in chief of the daily download. nice to have all of you joining us. >> wasn't it tom brokaw who said pretty much you would need a flap jacket. did it feel like that to you going into the debate? >> it felt a lot more going into it than when in the dough bait. even at the end of it, when it was over, the first person this made a bee line for me was

governor romney. said thanks, candy, very much. great debate. i didn't ever -- that was kind of -- i never felt like they were anything other than two men who were watching the calendar squeeze in on them toward election day and they were there to fight it out. i mean, you know, i didn't think that they were personal at each other. oh, it was clear they had this animosity. it wasn't clear that much on the stage. it was clear they were going after you. it didn't really feel that way. >> it looked like it from where we were. >> the camera make it is quite large. >> benghazi, much is being made. that seems to be the topic rising out of all of this. we've played this clip aa couple of times. i don't think we need to play t there was a point at the end where you were do iing a fact check and you confirmed that what the president had said acts of terror was, in fact, the case. and then you went on to say but in the main -- or essentially what governor romney had said about the two weeks of going back and forth that he was sort

of right on that point but in terms of the quote he called him out on the wrong thing. paul ryan, who has been making the rounds on the morning show says, well, she's already backtracked. he's talking about you. she's already backtracked from that statement, as you probably already know. she basically said she was wrong in that assertion, that mitt romney is right in what he said. look, nobody bloev that the rose garden speech that the president was suggesting that that particular attack was talking abo about an act of terror. >> listen, when i said on that stage is the same thing i said to you actually last night. >> i was sitting there. i know what you said. >> which is -- and when i was trying to do, by the way, i was trying to move this along. because we were -- the question was benghazi. there is no question that the administration is quite vulnerable on this topic, that they did take weeks -- actually, there really wasn't a protest and actually didn't have anything to do with the tape.

that took a long time. that's where he was going. that was his first answer. and then we got hung up on this yes he said. no, he didn't. yes, i said terror. no, you didn't. then there was this point they both kind of looked at me. the president is locking at me, mitt romney is looking at me. and i wanted to move this along so i said he did say acts of terror, called it an act of terror but governor romney, you were perfectly right that it took weeks for them to get past the tape and the -- >> act of terror, people on one side and then you said yes, it took two weeks and people on the other side applauded. not a backtrack? >> no. we got so stuck on that act of terror. did the president say this was an act of terror? the president did not say. >> these acts of terror. >> these acts of terror. but he was in the rose garden to talk about benghazi. so i don't think that's a -- sorry. >> tweeted out the verbiage from the rose garden. if someone wants to read it,

they can read it. before we go to break, and we're going to continue on the other side. >> eye have the greatest respect. and it's got to be difficult in that situation. i just felt that personally that was the one time where i felt like there was a genuine disagreement between the two candidates and i felt like it wasn't necessarily your place to try to be fact checked right there. i happen to think that your assessment of that was wrong. and so i was a bit frustrated on that particular part. i thought you did great on other parts of it. i really felt like you have two candidates disagreeing. it's not the role of the moderator to say, mr. president, your right or governor romney -- >> i'm going to stop you there. we've got to go to commercial break but i'll let you respond to it on the other side. >> i will certainly respond to it. >> you may as well. we'll play the whole chunk so we can see exactly what was being said. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy. lending more so companies and communities can expand,

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let's continue to talk about the debate last night. candy crowley with us, howard kurtz and lauren ashburn. here was the clip as candy was moderating. >> want to make sure we get that for the record. it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in benghazi an act of terror. >> get the transcript. >> he did, in fact, sir. so, let me call it an act of

terror. >> could you say that a little louder, candy? >> he did call it an act of terror. it did, as well, take -- it did, as well, take two weeks or so for the whole idea of there being a riot out there about this tape to come out. you're correct about that. >> the administration -- the administration indicated that this was a reaction to a video and was a spontaneous reaction. >> it did. >> so, we were talking about backtrack and congressman chaffetz was saying he didn't think it was your place to interject there. >> again, i was trying to move them on. they were hung up on this one thing. now, again, mitt romney had gone out and said at first they said it was the tape and they said it was this. and then they got hung up on did he say act of terror or did he not? i was just trying to say he said acts of terror but you're perfectly correct, they took weeks, two weeks actually was short. they took a month to figure out, or to at least tell us. and then he got back on, yes,

the track. i mean, i just -- to me that's no different -- i didn't say anything off the air than i said -- >> that is being spun as backtracking. >> the congressman is dead wrong. if you say something that is wrong, you should be corrected on the spot. i have no problem even having the table of fact checkers there. we shouldn't wait until the debate is over and have people saying this was right, this is wrong. more people are watching that singular debate and are watching anyone's particular coverage. if you say something and it's wrong, you check it right then. we have too many people who don't do -- >> so are we in the weeds on this? >> we are so in the weeds on this. people care about binders full of women and people care about -- >> answer that question. >> the point is that a lot of this stuff is technical, over people's heads. they are not paying attention to that. they are paying attention to the body language and watching for moments that will live on. like when president obama said my pension isn't as big as yours.

those are the things that people are fixating on this morning. this stuff is inside the beltway. >> perhaps. but part of what's going on here, even before the debate is over, republicans are out in the spin room, john sununu who said candy crowley wasn't fair. because when your guy is not perceived to have won, you attack the umpire. to the extent that this dominates the news coverage, you're right, bog down the semantics, it takes the story focus away from president obama is a lot more energized than he was in denver. >> i follow social media. when you are looking at the top google search term during this debate and during the last debate, it was who is winning? we are a culture of up, down. up, down. people wanted to know, okay -- >> in real time. >> did that mean good? did that mean bad? >> we won't really know until the election, right? ultimately, when we go back and analyze whoever the victor was,

we really cannot answer the who is winning question until november 6th. ts. citracal slow release continuously releases calcium plus d with efficient absorption in one daily dose. citracal slow release.

just in to cnn, u.s. housing starts and building permits rise to the highest level in four years, surge in home construction. these are new numbers released by the government. building permits for new homes up 11.6% from september for fr a month before.

compared to a year ago up 45%. housing starts up 15% compared to august, nearly 35% from a year ago. new home construction is like a money mover. you've got construction workers, trucks and then once the houses are sold, you've got carpets and couches. >> landscaping. >> all this stuff. that creates economic activity, no question. >> christine, thank you. still ahead on xwgs starting point," helping an american hero, bringing parties together. ty pennington does it all and reveals the home that's been built by democrats and republicans for a deserving military family. there they are. we will chat with them, coming up next.

welcome back, everybody. ty pennington is known for bu d building homes. he brought political parties together for one goal, to build a home for a military family. one half of a home -- plan called for half of a home to be built at the republican national conventi convention, the other half to be built at the democratic national convention. today the home comes together. it's donated, finished and goes to john jones ii and his wife, tanesha. ty, nice to see you. overall how do you think it went? >> this is what the house united project is about. it's finally been united. you know what? we worked together and we pulled it off. now sergeant jones and his wife will be able to go inside very shortly. it tok a lot of people to come together to make it happen. craftsmen, made in america, all these volunteers. we've proven today we can all

work together and do something really positive. these guys will be walking through that door in just a little bit. >> all right. sergeant jones and mrs. jones, how excited are you? we're looking at a picture of your new home. and it is beautiful. >> yes. we're very excited. you know, we can't thank all the volunteers enough for all the time they put into this home. we definitely can't, you know, thank enough for rebuilding together and craftsman. >> she's nervous. >> mrs. jones, you're nervous? let me read a little bit about your husband to let people know about what he has done, completed two tours of duty in iraq, served as a craft operator in the army transporting troops, he has been home from iraq for five years. i also know you suffer from ptsd and migraine headaches as a result of your service. mrs. jones, if you will, you've got three kids, ranging from age 4 to 12. that's pretty much the range of my children as well. this must be a very exciting thing for the kids, to have a brand new home.

>> yes. they're overjoyed. this is something we've always wanted and rebuilding together and craftsman made it possible. so we're grateful. >> ty, before i let you go -- >> and i would like to -- >> go ahead. >> sure. i with his going to say like those guys last nopt night that seemed to not be able to agree on anything, we can all agree on this one. >> i think we would all say that is a beautiful-looking home. so many homeless veterans and so many people who need help. what do you do so that it's not one home for one family but you can really kind of spread out and help more people, ty? >> well, i think one thing we certainly try and do is spread the word that, you know, whatever you can do to tell about our veterans, do. especially when it comes to jobs. and i think what's really great, too, a lot of people are helping out one of their own as well.

all of us as a society, as a community of a nation is, you know, help out when you can. people that have served our country, put their life on the line. give them a chance to prove themselves here in any field. >> we're excited about the chance of getting to walk through your new home at 12:00 noon. nice to so you. thank you for joining us. sergeant jones, mrs. jones, thank you for being with us this morni morning. congratulations. it's very exciting. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> you bet. you bet. o has 11 major brands to choose from? your ford dealer. who's offering a rebate? your ford dealer. who has the low price tire guarantee... affording peace of mind to anyone who might be in the market for a new set of res? your ford dealer. i'm beginning to sense a pattern. buy four select tires, get a $60 rebate. use the ford service credit credit card, get $60 more. that's up to $120. where did you get that sweater vest? your ford dealer.

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